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Clean up crew is just 5 ottos. Not sure if my tank is a bit on the small side for gobies? Never kept them before. Yeh I am manually removing as much as I can and trying to keep the plants pruned to encourage fresh growth.
Re-scape done randomly yesterday, the algae seems to be much more under control after I dimmed the lighting a tad and shortened the photo period by an hour.
Just need to let it all settle in. I have taken out the rotala as it was annoying me somehow, going for smaller bunches of bacopa and letting the anubias spread over the wood, and will encourage the carpet to fill in the gaps.
Still pretty poor Monte Carlo growth and getting algae issues, as soon as I try to turn the light up above 50% it just takes hold over a couple of days. My DC is green, but feel the diffuser may not be as efficient as could be as I did repair a crack in it initially, might just replace this. Also I think flow was a major issue with the glass lily pipe which stemmed the return considerably. Have changed it today to the eheim one which although less aesthetically pleasing has massively increased flow.
All seems to be going a bit wrong, general plants not flourishing and lots of algae, turned lights off for 4 days which seemed to clear most of it, not just got lights on for 4 hours a day. CO2 for 6 hours, 5ml EI Maco/ Micro alternate days. Feel like just ripping all the monte carlo out and replacing it with sand. Might add some more plant mass to try and help things, any thoughts
You know when you go to the aquarium shop for a couple of plants, but it leads to you buying way more than that and doing a full re-scape? Well......
Sorry about the poor pic, will get a better one when the room is dark.
I ripped out the carpet and the remaining hydrocotyle and added lilaeopsis novel-zealandia and alternanthera cardinalis. Also 2 new pieces of wood and pebbles rather than the ADA stone. A completely different look. Certainly more wild that before and will be interesting to see how it turns out. I think I am going to just order a new diffuser too so that I can eliminate the repaired crack in it as a potential issue.
So I have just fitted the replacement CO2 inline diffuser. Turned it on and after a while now have tonnes of micro bubbles coming out of my return pipe (which I am assuming is CO2). If this is the case then the crack in my old diffuser may have not been very well repaired by me as I definitely didn't have these bubbles before. It will be interesting to see how plant growth/ algae are affected over the next few weeks.
Hi Dan
Get yourself some floaters!
The micro bubbles tell you the diffuser and regulator are running normally!
Raise your outlet pipe a tad.....for some gas exchange.
Do the largest water changes possible for the first few weeks!
Reduce your lighting to 50% and 6 hours per day!
On a last note...I have never done that well with some Invitro plants straight in to the aquarium either!
I usually try and get emersed or established plants from members first!
Cheers
hoggie
Well it's all done a bit wrong, horrid film on surface keeps forming (have fitted sprayer point upwards to keep surface broken to stop it forming) and tank definitely smells funny. I am putting this all down to cyanobacteria which keep forming on the plants/ aqua soil. Annoyingly this tank has loads of flow, CO2 checker is green - yellow and auto dosed with EI ferts, 50% WC weekly. Lights dimmed too yet still can't get control of algae/ cyano - might just pack it in and sell the lot
Tank all going a bit wrong, horrid film of surface keeps forming/ smells, sheets of green stuff on aqua soil/ glass/ clinging to plants which I think is cyanobacteria.
Today water change about 60%, added fluvial internal to increase flow (any more and will be a jacuzzi). My last ditch attempt is to also dose liquid carbon and add another hour of CO2 before lights on. CO2 now on 1pm - 8pm, lights 3pm - 9pm at about 50% brightness, dosing EI ferts automatically.
Close to getting rid of it all at this point, especially if the smell continues.
sorry to hear about your tank. im sure you can work it out. dont give up so easy. i had scape more tanks just to break it down after few months when things go wrong. i just learn from last time what i did wrong. you will definitely get there.
are you using tap water also how hard is your g/h?
can you tell me what filter are you using?
Might I suggest that you try switching from EI to a "duckweed index" type of fert regime.
ADA aquasoil and powersand is rich stuff and I'm not convinced that it is an ideal match to EI and that certainly is not how ADA use it. Overdosing on ferts and micro toxicity is not a popular subject here but many suggest that too many trace ferts in particular can cause many problems. When I ran aquasoil amazonia and EI I never entirely eradicated my cyano problems or surface film issues. Now using a lower dose all in one fert instead these troubles are history.
oh ok. well i have a ada 60p with similar led to you with ada soil and eheim filter. i have to pump co2 for 4 hours before light come on. im using a ph probe with i think its better than a drop checker.
now days when i set up a new tank i set it up without fish. loads of plants and co2 on for 24hours for 2 weeks and slowly turn it down. that what work for me. also your ada light is too powerful for your amount of plants you have. you need more plants and somehow reduce the lights.
i also think using a lily pipe is better for flow and you can also add a eheim skimmer to come on when lights go off.
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